Tough acros!!! Check this out!! What a nightmare!!

[marine_freak]

Ok, I came home from work last night..... tank was cloudy could not figure out why at first... so I went down to my filtration room in the basement... I have just recently installed a kalkwasser water top off system.... it is a 25 gallon container which is fed from my RODI on a float switch.... then it goes into a Nilsson Reactor mixes with kalkwasser and enters my sump thru a float switch..... the float switch stuck in my sump.. my PH went from 8.0 to 9.5!!! I am in a panic... I need something to drop my PH quick.... AHHHH there is white vinegar... it is acidic, and I will use it to fix the problem... I start with 1 cup, and I watch the PH monitor.... still climbing after 2-3 minutes... so I add another cup and wait..... still climbing. This is not working, I must have this idea on too small of a scale, so.... I pour in 1/2 gallon of white vinegar slowly into the sump.... it now begins to drop after 2-3 minutes, and it drops, and it drops, and it drops 8.0 then 7.0 then 6.0, and finally bottoms out at 5.5!!!!! Holy S***!!!!!!!!! So I open the kalkwasser up full blast until it reaches a stable 8.3.... this all transpired within 30 minutes. The corals look bad very brown and slimy..... I kick up the flow add some carbon and this A.M. all the corals look good, all with PE and appear to be unphased..... I never would have thought any acro could handle that kind of swing but they all did great. Oh and by the way the new top off system is in pieces on my driveway!!! Back to the old bucket and drip method... if it is not broke why change!! Does anybody else have stories like this to tell???? I would love to hear em... that way I won't feel like a black cloud is hanging just over my house!!!

[chadfarmer]

let use know in a week how they are doing

man that sucks that is why i always tell people to hook up a ro/di directly to the system

[twon8]

I actually dropped a frag of monti or porites into a bucket of kalkwasser and it was in there about 6 seconds and it was and still is fine.

[Znut Reefer]

You'll have to give us an update in a week. Thats usually when you'll know all your acros are fine. It takes a week to see if any damage were done. I hope you have good news that all's doing well.

[Horace]

Yeah man, float switches with Kalk is not a good mix. As I am sure you know now, the kalk will gum the float switch up and stop if from working. IMO the only good way to use kalk is with a dosing pump. Then you KNOW exactly how much your putting in the tank and it wont fail on you.

I actually had a huge mishap with my tank a few months back where I had a full batch of DIY 2-part get dumped into my 75g in 30 mins.....needless to say my tank was pure white with calcium carbonate and the water was so thick with it, it looked like milk in there. I couldnt even see 1 inch into the tank with the lights on. I didnt lose even one coral from that episode believe it or not! My pink birds nest had some recession on its tips for a couple weeks but that was it....Corals are hardier than most think :). Usually a mishap wont wipe the tank out if its short in duration, its the long duration of a problem that takes them out for good.

[giants4pc]

And here I am trying to balance everything so perfectly and still not having success.

[kirstenk]

LOL........you are a good story teller! I had the same thing happen a long time ago. Spike up and down within a half hours time. Everything came thru just fine but I sweated it out for a week. Good Luck and report back in a week.

[manderx]

i turned my litermeter to full-on once to refill an empty kalk stirrer. of course i walked away for some reason and forgot all about it for quite some time. my own fault completely, can't even blame equipment.

pH was 10.5, couldn't see an inch into the tank. did a few cups of vinegar to get the pH down to 8.6. maybe lost a little color for a few days, but no real issues other than all the pumps in my tank (powerheads and submersibles) seized up from the kalk and needed an overnight soak in vinegar *except* for the 3 eheims (2 1260s on skimmer and 1 1262 on return). they looked brand new. i will never buy or recommend a different submersible pump.

[dvanacker]

did you have 2 float switches in series??

I have a similar story. Set up my Auto top off on sunday. Very rushed. Well I went away to work on monday not knowing that I installed the soleniod to the RO/DI backwards so there is a small leak. Now I was out of town for work till thursday. Well when I get home everything is cloudy and ****ed, flooded basement too. All the while my wife doesnt notice a thing really...haha. Anyway I check the SG 1.007. Not looking so good. Well I take the whole night (12hrs) to bring it back up. I only lost 1 acro colonie completely and one more I had to frag. The rest of my sps (13 or so pieces) where pail but pulled through along with my LPS and clams.

[Briankook]

Yeah, a similar situation happened here : http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=600557&perpage=25&highlight=starfire%20thread&pagenumber=17
I have my rodi hooked up directly to my sump. I have a separate Ca reactor, I do not dose kalk.

I have heard a lot of stories about problems w/ kalk.

[Mchava]

are you guys hooking the RO/DI's directly to your system worried about the unit some how getting stuck and filling your sump for of RO water. I know one guy in our reef club that had that happen. That is way I only have a 10g container full of ro/di water that way only 10g go into the tank.

[Briankook]

Mchava, no need to worry about that if you have one of these:

http://www.spectrapure.com/St_alc_p1.htm

It is NOT a float valve, it is a pressure vessel...big difference!

Both the pressure vessel & the float valve would have to fail. I have had mine running for almost 2 years & it is the best investment I have made!

[Dizzyswimmer]

I've had more than one kalk overdose, Had the water at ZERO visability, And did not have any corals die. Note I didn't add any vinegar. Just let the water clear with time ( about 16 hrs ).

[Blugobi]

I use a basic float valuve which has a MJ powerhead plugged in and it sits in 5 gal bucket. I add about 2 gal of water in the morning and 2 gal when I get home from work. At the most, if the float valuve gets stuck..no more than 2 gal of freshwater hits my system at one time. the good old "Kiss" method...."Keep it Simple Stupid"

Geo

[marine_freak]

I have my RODI water go into a 25-30 gallon reservoir over my sump.. it has a float switch to shut off the RODI when full, then a line from the reservoir to my Nilsson reactor... it dumps the water in the bottom of the reactor forcing the calcium rich water out the top and into my sump which has a float switch so when the sump is full it shut off the whole system.......... Now I took the last float switch in my sump out of commission, and the water coming from the reactor is regulated by a drip system... it continuously drips from the reactor but slowly.... Ph has been 8.0-8.2 ever since..... no coral loss yet.... but man am I getting a bacterial bloom from all that vinegar!!!! Not cyno or anything, just clear mucous on the tank walls and rocks...... corals do not seem bothered. This is day 2 after the accident... I will keep you guys updated....

[DitchPlains2]

the float switch stuck in my sump.. my PH went from 8.0 to 9.5!!!


Youch then back to 5.5 thats like going from the earth to the moon in the same day with no spacesuit lol....thats nuts and they survived, are they all captive grown? I wonder if thats the reason. I think my most hardy corals are captive grown, my wc colonies are the only that have ever stnd or rtnd on me.

just my thoughts sorry to hear it man

Cheers
David

[Frankysreef]

Happened to me too, 1/2 of my acros died.. within a few days.. thought they would survive but I was wrong.

[Andys29]

I have had the same problems myself with ph getting to high using the kalk reactor on a float switch. Now i have just r/o top off and the kalk reactor on a controller dosing when ph drops below 8.1 . Its alot safer and havnt had any problems since.

[Leopardshark]

My ph meter went nuts so when it read 9.2 I started adding vinegar to keep the ph at "safe " levels, I did this about 3 times per day for about a week, then I calibrated the meter and realized that ph was always ok and when adding vinegar, ph probably went down to 7.1.
Stupid me but no coral died during my stupidity.

[CAreefer]

Not really a tough acro story but tough corals nonetheless.
1- E. paradivisia
1- E. ancora
1- M. Capricornis

6 days in FedEx's possession. 2 days LAX holding facility, 1 day transit to South Carolina, 2 days SC holding facility, 1 day kinkos hold for pick-up, next day delivery to home address.

Frogspawn doing fine, completely open after 30 minutes. M. cap had a couple bare spots but otherwise none the worse for the wear. Ancora completely melted.

I was dumbfounded to say the least.

CAReefer

[tnyr5]

few weeeks ago i went on vacation & left my tank in the care of my family, they first added water from the downstairs softie tank into the sps tank instead of ro water from the bucket clearly labled RO water ( i was in a hurry & didn't have time to dump the dirty water) this caused the skimmer to go completely nuts & skim out 10 gallons of water, which the ato then replaced with all fresh water, & then they let the sump run dry so for a week my poor sps tank sat at a specific gravity of about 1.012. amazingly in a pile of dead coral the squamosa clam and an acro nobilis frag looked as if nothing had ever happened.

[tnyr5]

few weeeks ago i went on vacation & left my tank in the care of my family, they first added water from the downstairs softie tank into the sps tank instead of ro water from the bucket clearly labled RO water ( i was in a hurry & didn't have time to dump the dirty water) this caused the skimmer to go completely nuts & skim out 10 gallons of water, which the ato then replaced with all fresh water, & then they let the sump run dry so for a week my poor sps tank sat at a specific gravity of about 1.012. amazingly in a pile of dead coral the squamosa clam and an acro nobilis frag looked as if nothing had ever happened.

[marine_freak]

Well this is day 3 and all corals still hanging in there....not the best polyp extension but the corals are not rtning yet. Water is still kind of cloudy not milky but kind of hazy. I am still attributing the look to a bacterial bloom. I plan to do a good water change of at least 30 gallons today with a brand new batch of carbon. Oh and thanks guys for the stories, still I am a complete moron!!!!!

[marine_freak]

It has begun... lost my first acro colony very nice one to boot a nice Jacqueline...... :( all my other colonies are now showing no polyp expansion, water beginning to smell fishy...... or foul. I Have instituted my savior plan, have now done 3 30 gallon water changes and running a large amt of carbon... flow has been increased 4 fold..... now it is a waiting game, will do another water change in the AM and cont. to do so until acros begin to respond...... This is a sad day at my house!!!! :( :( :(

[Znut Reefer]

Marine _freak

So sorry to hear this for you. I had my fingers crossed you would be reporting no losses.
I removed a sand bed from a refuge once, and it took almost a week to start seeing the losses in my old 225. I lost close to $800 in rare and exotics.
I hope things turn around for you soon.

[Wiskey]

Do you know anyone that can take frags of your peices? That way if you do loose them in a few months you can get a frag back, plus most people will jump at the chance to get a bunch of free frags.

HTH,
Whiskey

[Leopardshark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7705197#post7705197 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by znut Reefer
Marine _freak

So sorry to hear this for you. I had my fingers crossed you would be reporting no losses.
I removed a sand bed from a refuge once, and it took almost a week to start seeing the losses in my old 225. I lost close to $800 in rare and exotics.
I hope things turn around for you soon.
I wonder what I´m doing ok or why am I so lucky. I took the DSB out of my tank in 2 sessions, first the right and then the left part. In both cases water was so dirty because of all the stuff trapped in the sand bed that I had to wait several hours to let it settle just enough so I could see into the tank again to reintroduce the LR.
The second time was worse because I removed about 200 lbs of sand with tons or organics (DSB sucks).
None of those times I lost a single acro. I just set up the skimmer at 110% to get wet skimmate and run my ozonizer as always.
Good luck anyway!.
Mark

[Znut Reefer]

Leopardshark,

I'd say you were very lucky! I wasn't so lucky, for some reason I mostly lost montis. My main tank was BB always has been. I had the sand in the refuge which was above the main tank.
Only thing I could think that happen was there must have been alot of stored up nasties in the sandbed of the refug.

Now that I have a 550 it is also BB and so is my refuge.

Maybe marine_freak will get some good luck in his time of need!

[Leopardshark]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7706043#post7706043 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by znut Reefer
Leopardshark,

I'd say you were very lucky! I wasn't so lucky, for some reason I mostly lost montis. My main tank was BB always has been. I had the sand in the refuge which was above the main tank.
Only thing I could think that happen was there must have been alot of stored up nasties in the sandbed of the refug.

Now that I have a 550 it is also BB and so is my refuge.

Maybe marine_freak will get some good luck in his time of need!
Yes I think I was lucky, chech this pic out. This is while removing the left part of the DSB.
http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/6256dirty-med.JPG

[Znut Reefer]

Wow!! Thats unreal that you never lost anything. What a mess!

[Leopardshark]

Yeah, and I did it twice and not a single casuality!!!. All fishes and 50% of the corals were inside the tank!
Mark